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Germany Flashcards > Unit 4- The Nazi Dictatorship 1933-39 > Flashcards

Unit 4- The Nazi Dictatorship 1933-39 Flashcards

1
Q

Which party was banned after the Reichstag Fire in 1933 ?

A
  • The KPD
  • They were arrested and imprisoned
  • Some fled in exile
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2
Q

What did the Enabling Act state ?

A
  • Gave Hitler the power of a dictator

- Hindenburg still had the final say on constitutional matters and the loyalty of the army

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3
Q

Why was the SPD outlawed in 1933 ?

A
  • Outlawed
  • As a ‘party hostile to the nation and the state’
  • They had voiced their opposition against the Nazis
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4
Q

Which two parties dissolved themselves in 1933 ?

A
  • DNVP

- The Centre Party

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5
Q

What was the Law Against the Formation of New Parties 1933 ?

A

-Outlawed all non-Nazi political parties

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6
Q

What was the position of Prussia in Government ?

A
  • Largest German state
  • 50% of the population of the entire country
  • State governments could operate largely independently of the central government
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7
Q

What changes were made to Prussia in 1933?

A
  • Prussian State government dismissed
  • Reich Commissioner appointed to run the state (Goering)
  • This paved a way for the centralization of power
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8
Q

What was First law for the coordination of the federal state 1933 ?

A
  • Dissolved the existing state assemblies

- Replaced with Nazi dominated assemblies

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9
Q

What was the Second law for the coordination of the federal state 1933?

A
  • New post of Reich governor to oversee government of each state
  • Responsible for ensuring state governments followed the polices laid down by central government
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10
Q

What steps were taken to gain the centralisation of government 1934 ?

A
  • State assemblies abolished
  • Posts of Reich governor made redundant but Hitler didn’t abolish the posts
  • Reichsrat was abolished
  • Nazi leaders known as Gauleitars wanted to control local governments
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11
Q

How did the Nazis control the Civil Service in 1934 ?

A
  • Local officials were forced to resign and were replaced by Nazis
  • Nazi SA began to place party officials in government to ensure that the civil service were carrying out orders
  • Nazis firmly in control
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12
Q

What was Gleichschaltung ?

A
  • Means everyone is in line

- In which Hitler established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society

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13
Q

What did the number of SA members increase to in 1934 ?

A

1934- 3 million members

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14
Q

How many people were executed in NOTLN ?

A

400 people were executed

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15
Q

Which political figures were executed in NOTLN ?

A
  • Schleicher
  • Gustav von Kahr
  • Greggor Strasser
  • Rohm and other leaders of the SA
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16
Q

How did Hitler secure the support of the army and the people after NOTLN ?

A
  • Hitler addressed Reichstag and accepted full responsibility
  • Said he was acting to “save the country from a SA coup”
  • Decisive decisions
  • Removed the threat of a revolution
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17
Q

What did SA membership decline to after NOTLN ?

A
  • 1.6 million

- SA’s political power was destroyed

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18
Q

What were Hindenburg’s wishes in his will ?

A

-Expressed preference for a restoration of the monarchy

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19
Q

What did Hitler aim to do after Hindenburg died ?

A

-Aimed to merge the office of the president and the chancellor

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20
Q

What did Hindenburg plan to do, due to his suspicions about the SA ?

A
  • Planned to hand power to the army
  • Dismiss Hitler
  • His views were shared by army commanders such as Papen
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21
Q

What did Hitler do to control the SA ?

A
  • Knew he couldn’t get army’s support once Hindenburg died unless he controlled the SA
  • Hitler launched a purge of the SA
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22
Q

What did Hitler announce an hour after Hindenburg’s death ?

A

-Announced that the office of the president would be merged with the office of the chancellor

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23
Q

Who swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler ?

A

-Officers and soldiers of the army

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24
Q

What did the Plebiscite decide ?

A

-Decided if Hitler would be appointed as Fuhrer

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25
Q

How many people voted for against Hitler’s appointment as Fuhrer ?

A
  • 89.9% voted for change

- 10.1% voted against the change (no)

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26
Q

What factors motivated Hitler towards NOTLN ?

A
  • Rohm wanted a second revolution
  • Rohm wanted the SA to replace the army
  • SA disrupt the army and steal weapons
  • Army loyal to Hindenburg not Hitler
  • SA attack the police
  • SA no longer needed
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27
Q

What police forces were created ?

A
  • SA
  • SS, controlled by Himmler
  • The Gestapo
  • SD, controlled by Hydrich
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28
Q

What was the SS ?

A
  • Main Nazi Party organisation
  • Controlled by Himler
  • Controlled entire Third Reich Police System and concentration camps
  • Strictly disciplined, racially pure and obedient
  • Key Values: loyalty and honour, in adherence to the Nazi ideology
  • Violence and murder were used
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29
Q

What were Concentration Camps ?

A
  • Prisons were inmates were forced to work
  • 70 Camps
  • First camp was Dacheu
  • Came under SS control after 1934
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30
Q

What was the SD ?

A
  • Internal security service of the Nazi party
  • Set up to investigate claims of political enemies
  • Led by Reinhard Heydrich
  • Would monitor public opinion, identify those who voted ‘no’ in the plebiscite and report to Hitler
  • 50,000 officers as of 1939
  • Staffed with amateurs who were committed to Nazis
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31
Q

What was the Gestapo ?

A
  • Secret State Police
  • Extended to cover the whole country
  • 20,000 officers in 1939
  • Installed fear and suspicion into German population
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32
Q

How did the Gestapo get their information ?

A
  • Depended on information supplied by informers
  • Nazi party activists asked to spy on neighbours and workmates
  • Block Leader, of every block or street, would monitor and report on any suspicious activity
  • Most informers were motivated by personal grudges not political motives
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33
Q

What were the problems with the Judges and Lawyers ?

A
  • Were conservative but not Nazis
  • Nazis couldn’t interfere as the violence of the SA and SS were clearly illegal
  • Many prosecutions of stormtroopers were begun by lawyers
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34
Q

What was the League of National Socialist Lawyers ?

A
  • Merging of professional associations of Judges and Lawyers
  • Created the Front of German Law in 1933
  • Made clear to judges and lawyers that their career prospects depended on supporting the regime
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35
Q

What were the Special and Peoples Courts 1933/34 ?

A
  • Dealt with political crimes
  • 3 Nazi Judges and 2 professional Judges
  • No juries
  • Defendants had no rights of appeal against their sentences
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36
Q

How many people were tried by the People’s Court ?

A
  • 3400
  • Between 1934-39
  • Most of them were former communists and socialists
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37
Q

Why was there conformity towards the Nazi regime ?

A
  • Use of propaganda and Gleichcahltung- able to gain acceptance
  • SS presented to protect people
  • ‘people’s court’, ‘popular justice’ portrayed repression reflecting the people
  • Gestapo successful due to cooperation of people
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38
Q

Why didn’t the left pose a threat to the Nazi’s ?

A
  • Bitterly divided
  • KPD VS SPD
  • SPD branded as ‘social fascists’
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39
Q

How did the Nazi’s deal with resistance from the SPD?

A
  • SPD activists murdered or placed into ‘preventive custody’

- SA defeated opposition

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40
Q

How did the SPD gather in secret ?

A
  • Established small, secret cells of supporters in factories
  • Some city based groups such as the Berlin Red Patrol
  • Propaganda smuggled across the border from Czechoslovakia
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41
Q

Why were the SPD limited in resisting against the Nazis?

A
  • Constant fear of exposure
  • Arrest by the Gestapo
  • Priority was to survive and to be prepared for the collapse of the regime
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42
Q

What % of the KPD’s membership was killed by the Nazi’s during 1933 ?

A

10% of the KPD’s membership was killed by the Nazi’s during 1933

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43
Q

How did the KPD gather in secret ?

A
  • Established underground network in some German industrial centres
  • Revolutionary unions set up in Berlin and Hamburg to recruit members and publish newspapers
  • Broken up by gestapo
  • Secret factory cells established
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44
Q

What resistance was shown from workers ?

A
  • 37 Strikes in Rhineland
  • 1937 a total of 250 strikes
  • Absenteeism (not turn up)
  • Would damage machinery
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45
Q

How did Nazis deal with resistance from workers ?

A
  • 4000 strikers spent time in prison in 1935
  • 1938 new labour regulations introduced to combat absenteeism, would give penalties
  • Gestapo arrested 114 workers for absenteeism at a mutations plant in 1938
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46
Q

What were issues that caused the workers to resist ?

A
  • Poor working conditions
  • Low wages
  • Discontent over food prices
  • Pressure to work longer hours
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47
Q

Why were the churches in a powerful position ?

A
  • Retained organisational autonomy
  • Only organisation that had an alternative ideology to the Nazis
  • Influence of priest more important in some communities rather than the Nazi’s
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48
Q

What resistance was shown from the Protestant Church ?

A
  • Establishment of the Pastors Emergency League in 1933
  • Confessional Church 1934
  • Led by pastors who weren’t Nazis and were from academic backgrounds
  • Pastors spoke out about Nazifed Church
  • Many churches refused to display swastikas
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49
Q

Why did Protestant churches refuse to conform ?

A
  • Trying to protect independence of the church
  • Wouldn’t impose the Aryan paragraph. This would dismiss any pastor who’d converted from Judaism from the church
  • Trying to defend orthodox Lutheran theology, based on the bible
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50
Q

How did the Nazi regime respond to resistance by Protestant Churches ?

A
  • Increased repression
  • Pastors had salaries stopped
  • Banned from teaching in schools
  • Many pastors were arrested
  • At the end of 1937, over 700 pastors had been imprisoned
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51
Q

What was the Concordat of 1933?

A
  • The Catholic Church and the Nazi regime agreed to leave each other alone
  • Came under attack
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52
Q

How did the Catholic Church place itself in open conflict with the Nazi regime ?

A
  • Pope issued ‘With Burning Grief’, which condemned Nazi’s hatred upon the church
  • Smuggled into Germany
  • Distributed and read out in every church in 1937
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53
Q

What was the Nazi’s response to Catholic Church resistance ?

A
  • Increased repression
  • Arrests of priests
  • Intimidation and harassment of priests
  • Some opposition to the arresting of a priest at his trial, where there were noisy demonstrations
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54
Q

Why was there growing resistance by young people to the regime ?

A
  • Membership to Hitler’s Youth was made compulsory in 1939
  • Youth movements took up a lot of a teenagers free time
  • Compulsory gymnastic sessions on Wednesday evenings
  • All day Sunday hikes
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55
Q

What did the Youth do to resist ?

A
  • Opted out- allowed membership to lapse or didn’t attend weekly parades
  • Hummed banned tunes at parades
  • Formed cliques, groups
  • Criminal gangs and political gangs- Meuten gangs
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56
Q

Why was the number of opposition in the civil service and army small ?

A
  • Both had a strong tradition of serving the state

- Whoever was in charge

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57
Q

What resistance was there from the elites ?

A
  • 1938
  • Unease about Nazi Foreign Policy
  • Felt Hitler was leading them into an unprepared war
  • He wanted a union with Austria and an invasion of Czechoslovakia within a year
58
Q

What did Hitler do to the Nazi’s that opposed his foreign policy ?

A
  • Blomberg and Fritsch expressed their doubts
  • Hitler removed them from army leadership
  • Replaced them with more compliant generals
59
Q

What caused the army to plot to remove Hitler ?

A
    1. Hitler ordered army to prepare for plans for an invasion of Czechoslovakia
  • Threat of War prompted them to plot to remove Hitler in a military coup
60
Q

How did the army plot against Hitler fail ?

A
  • Knew France and Britain would support Czech if they were invaded (cause war)
  • Detailed plans made for a march on Berlin if war was declared
  • All depended on France and Britain standing by Czech to make the threat of war credible
  • France and Britain allow Hitler to takeover of the Sudetenland area of Czech
61
Q

What was the role of Goebbles in Nazi propaganda?

A
  • Nazi propaganda chief
  • Controlled, directed and censored the media to ensure Nazi ideals were spread effectively
  • Oversaw the work of press, radio, film and literature
62
Q

How was the Newspapers and Press used as a form of Propaganda?

A
  • Clause 14 obligated editors to exclude anything that weakened the Nazis from the papers
  • Socialist and communist newspapers closed under protection of the people
  • Nazis by the end of 1933 bought 27 daily newspapers
  • Reich Association of the German Press kept a register of acceptable editors and journalists
63
Q

How was Radio used as a form of Propaganda?

A
  • Communal loudspeakers
  • 1933- Hitler made 50 broadcasts, allowed him to directly communicate with the German people
  • Key speeches by Hitler announced by sirens and work was stopped so all could listen to public loudspeakers
  • Goebbles promoted the mass production and sale of cheap radio sets
  • April 1934, all radio stations in Germany were brought under the control of the Reich Radio Company
64
Q

How many of German households had a radio set by 1939 ?

A

-70% of German households had a radio set by 1939

65
Q

How was Film used as a form of propaganda ?

A
  • Knew film would work on the subconscious, delivering subliminal messages
  • Goebbles was personally responsible for approving every film made in Germany after 1933
  • 1933-35, over 1000 films were produced in Germany and cinema attendance increased 1933-44
  • Leadership was glorified, blood and soil was a common theme
  • Aswell as the demonising of Jews and Communists
66
Q

How were Parades used as a form of propaganda?

A
  • Marches: wearing uniforms, carrying banners, singing of party songs all captured peoples attention and showed discipline
  • Households expected to show support by hanging Swastika flags
  • Compliance ensured by block leaders
67
Q

What other forms of propaganda were used by the Nazis?

A
  • Promoted arts that glorified the healthy strong, hero’s from Germany’s past
  • Belief only aryans could promote true art
  • 1933- bonfire of 20,000 books. Books burnt were deemed ungerman (jewish/communist authors)
68
Q

What was the Hitler Myth ?

A
  • Nazi propaganda presented Hitler as ‘a man of the people’
  • Symbolised the unity of the Nazi Party
  • Presented as a man who:
  • Was hardworking and tough- mastered the problems Germany faced due to the depression
  • Lived a simple life and sacrificed personal happiness to devote himself to the people
  • Shown as being alone and separate from his party (personality politics)
69
Q

What was the reality of the Hitler Myth ?

A
  • Hitler was surround by officials who competed with each other to gain his attention and implement his wishes
  • Hitler supplied the vision and his officials interpreted this and turned it into detailed polices
  • Actually not involved in decision making
  • Not hardworking would stay up late eating and watching films
  • Disliked reading official documents and rarely got involved in detailed discussions on policy
  • Difficult in making decisions
70
Q

What were Hitler’s Economic Policy Aims ?

A
  • Economic recovery from depression
  • Reduction of unemployment
  • Create an economy stable of sustaining rearmament and a future war
  • Self-sufficent in production of food and raw materials= economic autarky
71
Q

What was Economic Autarky ?

A
  • -Self- sufficent in production of food and raw materials

- Reduced the dependance on imports and the need for large reserves of foreign currency

72
Q

Who was the key figure in Nazi Economics 1933-36 ?

A

-Hjalmar Schacht

73
Q

What were Autobahns ?

A
  • Construction projects of motorways
  • Modern bridges
  • Visible sign of economic revival
  • Only employed a few ppl- 125,000 at its peak
  • Construction slowed in 1938 and stopped in 1942
  • People didn’t have cars
74
Q

What was the Nazi’s battle for work project ?

A
  • Reduce unemployment
  • Authobahns
  • Money spent on building roads and public buildings
  • Increased industrial production stimulated through loans and tax relief to private companies
  • 1935-Reich Labor Service - unemployed young men compelled to do 6 months labor in farming or construction
  • Military conscription introduced for young men
75
Q

Was the Nazi’s battle for work project successful ?

A
  • Helped to reduce unemployment faster

- Was successful

76
Q

What was the New Plan of 1934 ?

A
  • Placed controls on imports and on access to foreign currency
  • Trade agreements with foreign countries, where Germany paid for goods with Reichmarks
  • Foreign countries could only use this money to buy German goods
77
Q

What was the growing issue with imports and exports in 1934 ?

A
  • Imports growing faster than exports

- Shortages of foreign currencies which were needed to purchase imported goods

78
Q

What were Mefo Bills ?

A
  • Government payed for its Military using Credit Notes or Mefo Bills
  • These bills could be exchanged at the Reichbank for cash
  • Ensured confidence that private companies would get their money
  • Would get 4% annual interest if they kept the bill for a full 5 year term if they didn’t ask for the payment
79
Q

What were the advantages of Mefo Bills ?

A
  • Rearmament programme could be started in 1935 without the government having the funds to finance it
  • Could be kept secret as the expenditure didn’t appear in the governments accounts
80
Q

What economic issues began to occur between 1935-36 ?

A
  • Balance of payment problems
  • Shortages of foreign exchange
  • food shortages, rising prices, lower living standards
  • -Questions raised about regimes priorities
  • Aiming for rearmament whilst there is shortages ‘guns or butter’
81
Q

What was Economic Autarky ?

A
  • Self- sufficent in production of food and raw materials

- Reduced the dependance on imports and the need for large reserves of foreign currency

82
Q

What was the Aim of the Four Year Plan ?

A
  • Make Germany ready for war within 4 years
  • Achieve economic autarky
  • Rearmament
83
Q

What was in the Four Year Plan ?

A
  • Controls on labour supply, prices, raw materials and foreign exchange
  • Setting production targets for private companies
  • Establishing new state owned industrial plants (Hermann Goering Steelworks)
  • Increased production of iron, steel, chemicals
  • Encouraging research and investment in the production of substitute products such as artificial rubber to reduce dependance on exports
84
Q

How did Nazis promote Economic Autarky to Germans ?

A
  • Propaganda campaigns to persuade people to only buy German goods, only eat German food and only use German raw materials
  • Propaganda presented this as the patriotic duty of all German citizens
  • 1937- campaign to collect scrap metal from people’s homes and public spaces to make up for shortages in raw materials
  • Hitlers Youth collected pots and pans (desperation)
85
Q

What were the results of the Four Year Plan ?

A
  • Did not match propaganda claims of independence and national pride
  • German industry didn’t meet targets
  • 1939- German still imported 1/3 of its raw materials
  • German economy didn’t have resources to achieve all of the regimes aims
  • 1939- German economy under severe strain
86
Q

Which business leaders welcomed the Nazis in 1933 and why ?

A
  • Fritz Thyssen and Alfred Hugenberg
  • Helped Hitler into power
  • Suppression of free trade unions
  • Establishment of political stability
  • Revival of economy
  • Created an environment favourable to business
  • Many cooperated with the Nazis
87
Q

How did some businesses benefit from the 4 Year Plan ?

A
  • Large Chemicals company I.G. Farben
  • One of the directors held a key post in the administration of the Four Year Plan
  • 1935-39, profits of IG Farben increased from 71 million-240 million Reichmarks
88
Q

Which businesses were skeptical about the Four Year Plan ?

A
  • Ruhr iron and steel firms were reluctant to invest in new steelworks to produce steel from poor quality and expensive German iron ore
  • Rather than use cheaper and imported superior one
89
Q

What was the Hermann Goering Steelworks ?

A
  • Enormous enterprise established and owned by the state
  • Partly financed by private companies who were forced to invest in it
  • Given priority for materials over private companies
  • 1939-largest industrial enterprise in Europe
  • Expanded into coal mining and manufacture of heavy machinery
  • Expanded into Austria, Poland and France after 1938
90
Q

How did Nazi propaganda exaggerate economic recovery by 1939 ?

A
  • Projected an image of success of Nazi Economic policies
  • Speeches and radio by Hitler claimed the ‘battle for work’ had been won
  • Products ‘the people’s car’ gave impressions that living standards increased
  • Covered up failures
91
Q

What did Official unemployment figures by 1934 show ?

A
  • Show a dramatic reduction in unemployment in the number of unemployed by 1934, continuing to fall after that
  • Basis of the ‘battle for work’ being won
92
Q

What were flaws to the claim that the ‘Battle for Work’ had been won ?

A
  • Economic recovery had actually begun before the Nazis took power in 1933. Job Creation schemes were actually based off policies introduced by Brunning in the 1930’s
  • Reduction in unemployment figures achieved by persuading married women to give up their employment through marriage loans, giving jobs to unemployed males
  • Conscription in 1935 for young males 18-25, took a large proportion of young males out of the labour market
  • Occasional employment counted as permanently employed
93
Q

What were working standards like during 1933-39 ?

A
  • Income for many workers did increase
  • Some employers were prepared to pay bonuses and other benefits to get round the freeze on wages and attract more skilled workers
  • Pay increased due to longer working hours
  • Workers in key industries such as armaments were better off than before
94
Q

What did Nazi propaganda emphasise about working conditions ?

A
  • Stressed benefits that the nazi regime had bestowed on workers
  • Improved working conditions
  • Better social and welfare provision
  • Access to goods and services
95
Q

What was the situation with food shortages in 1939 ?

A
  • Prices rose in the 1930’s
  • People able to buy enough food to feed family but couldn’t afford luxuries
  • Consumption of higher value foods like meat, egg and fruit declined
  • Consumption of cheaper foods such as potatoes and rye bread increased
  • Even shortages of eggs, meat and wheat and rye
96
Q

What was the ‘People’s Car’ ?

A
  • The Volkswagen
  • Promoted by Strength Through Joy with a huge campaign advertising ‘a car for everyone’
  • Successfully persuaded workers to pay into a savings scheme to purchase one
  • Great success of Nazi propaganda as cars never went into full production
  • Only Nazi elites could actually get one
97
Q

What was Volksgemeinschaft ?

A
  • A people’s community
  • Unified by blood, race and ideology, all with a common bond of loyalty to the Hitler
  • New German man and woman
  • Everyone that fits into the Nazi regime
98
Q

What was the Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service 1933 ?

A
  • Law allowed people to be dismissed on political grounds

- Teachers

99
Q

How did Nazi’s gain control over teachers ?

A
  • Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service dismissed Jewish teachers or on political grounds
  • Pressured into joining the National Socialist Teachers League
  • Vetting of textbooks, told what could and couldn’t be taught
100
Q

How did Nazi’s gain control over the curriculum ?

A
  • Emphasis on physical education. Military style drills in PE lessons
  • German lessons instilled a ‘conscious of being German’
  • Biology- stress on race and hereditary, evolution and survival of the fittest
  • Geography used to develop awareness pot Lebensraum (living space) and racial superiority
101
Q

How did Nazis restrict access to Universities ?

A
  • Downgraded importance of academic education
  • Access to HE strictly rationed, selection made on basis of political reliability
  • Women restricted to 10% of places
  • Jews restricted to 1.5% of places
102
Q

How did Nazi’s control Universities ?

A
  • Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service- 1200 university staff dismissed on racial or political grounds - 15%
  • Made to sign ‘Declaration in support of Hitler and the National Socialist State’
  • Students had to join the German Students League, 25% managed to avoid it
  • Students forced to do 4 months labour service and 2 months in an SA camp - gave them experience of real life, which nazis thought was better than academic learning
103
Q

Why was the Nazi’s policies of controlling Universities a success ?

A
  • Universities were dominated by right wing nationalists

- Supported Nazis

104
Q

How did the Nazi’s control Hitler’s Youth ?

A
  • 1936-Law for the Incorporation of German Youth- gave them the status of an official education movement, equal status to schools
  • Catholic Youth organisations banned. Hitler Youth became the only permitted youth organisation
  • Membership made compulsory in 1939
  • Constant political indoctrination and physical activity
  • Members had to swear a personal oath of allegiance to the Fuhrer
  • Taught to sing Nazi songs
105
Q

Was the methods of control used for Hitler’s Youth a success ?

A
  • The opportunity to take part in sports attracted many young boys
  • Many joined against the wishes of their non-nazi parents
  • Attendance at parades began to slip when membership was made compulsory in 1939
106
Q

How did Nazi’s control the League of German Girls (BDM) ?

A
  • Membership compulsory in 1939
  • Taught they had a duty to be healthy, their bodies bulged to the nation, future child bearers
  • Formation dancing and group gymnastics
  • Taught sewing and cooking
  • Sessions for political education and racial awareness
  • Annual summer camps, highly structured- sports, physical exercise, route marches, aswell as indoctrination- flag waving and saluting
  • All young women up to the age of 25 had to do a years of unpaid work with the Reich Labour Service before they could get paid employment
107
Q

Why did many girls enjoy BDM ?

A
  • Found it liberating
  • Doing things their mothers had not been allowed to do
  • BDM groups were classless, part of the Volkschemscaft
108
Q

Why did some girls oppose BDM?

A
  • After 1934, girls were expected to do a years work on the land or in domestic service
  • Aim was to put girls in touch with their peasant roles
  • This was unpopular with girls from the cities and many tried to avoid it
109
Q

What were the Nazi’s priorities when controlling Women ?

A
  • Raise the birth rate

- Restrict the employment of married women outside the family home

110
Q

How did the Nazi’s control Women ?

A
  • Marriage Loans- Introduced for women that left work and married aryan men. For each child born the amount of the loan that had to be repaid was reduced by a quarter
  • Nazis awarded medals to women for ‘donating a baby to the Fuhrer. 4/5 children= bronze, 6/7= silver, 8= gold
  • Birth control discouraged, Abortion restricted
  • Encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle, exercise and no smoking or drinking
111
Q

How did Women’s Organisations promote their values to women ?

A
  • German’s Women League- Gave advice to women on cooking and healthy eating. By 1939 had over 6 million members
  • National Socialist Women’s Organisation- Promoted Nazi ideology that women should be homemakers and childbearers
  • Reich Mothers Service- Motherhood training service to convince them of the duties of motherhood. 1939- 1.7 million women attended
112
Q

Were the Nazi’s policies towards women a success ?

A
  • No
  • Number of women in the workforce increased between 1933-39
  • Had to encourage women to take up employment after 1936, as there were growing labour shortages with the growing rearmament scheme
113
Q

What was the DAF ?

A
  • German Labour Front
  • Led by Robert Ley
  • To coordinate workers into the Nazi regime
  • Became the largest organisation in the Third Reich
  • Only officially recognised organisation representing workers
  • Symbol of Volksgemeinschaft
  • Replaced trade unions
114
Q

What were the Aims of the DAF ?

A
  • Win workers over to the Volksgemeinschaft

- Encourage workers to increase production

115
Q

What policies did the DAF introduce ?

A
  • Established the organisation ‘Strength through Joy’ to organise workers leisure time
  • 1936- provide vocational training to improve workers skills
  • Built a large business empire- banks, housing associations, owned their own travel company
116
Q

How many paid employees did the DAF have by 1939 ?

A

-The DAF had 44,500 paid employees by 1939

117
Q

What were the negatives of the DAF ?

A
  • Workers had to work harder and accept a squeeze on wages and living standards
  • Nazis promoted that they were working for the community through propaganda- had their own propaganda department
118
Q

What was Strength through Joy (Kdf) ?

A
  • Led by Robert Ley and DAF
  • To organise workers leisure time
  • Idea was that workers would gain strength for their work by experiencing joy in their leisure
  • Would be more efficient when they returned to work
  • Used its activities to indoctrinate workers and their families into Nazi ideology
119
Q

What was the Kdf’s Aims ?

A
  • People to see themselves as part of a volksgmeinscaft. With leisure time and work, there would be no time for personal lives
  • Encourage a spirit of social equality. Activities were classless
  • Bring Germans from different regions of the country together
  • Encourage participation of sport.
  • Encourage competition and ambition- Kdf national trades competition was organised for apprentices to improve skills and standards of work
120
Q

How did the Kdf encourage sports in the workplace ?

A

-Every youth in employment obliged to do 2 hrs of physical exercise each week in the workplace

121
Q

What were workers offered by the Kdf ?

A
  • Subsided holidays
  • Sporting activities and hikes
  • Theatre and cinema visits at reduced prices
  • Classical music concerts at lunch breaks
122
Q

How many people were members of the Kdf ?

A
  • Over 7000 paid employees of the organisation by 1939

- Membership of the Kdf came with DAF= by 1936, 35 million members

123
Q

What was the mass tourism through the Kdf ?

A
  • Cruises to Finland, Turkey
  • Rail trips to Italy
  • Kdf ships built on a classless basis to emphasise Volksgemeinschfat
  • Facilities on board included gym, swimming pools, theatres
  • Cruises designed to show how Germany was superior and advancing under the Nazi regime
124
Q

What was the reality of mass tourism through the Kdf ?

A
  • Tickets were too expensive for ordinary workers
  • 10% on a ship to Norway were working class
  • Best cabins on ship allocated to party officials and civil servants
  • Gestapo and SS agents travelled on cruises to spy on ppl to avoid opposition
  • Gestapo reported mass drunkenness and riotous behaviour, especially from party officials
  • Robert Ley spent time getting drunk and womanising
125
Q

Why did coordinating churches into the Volkgemeinscaft pose serious challenges for the Nazi’s ?

A
  • Germans divided by faith (Protestant and catholics)
  • Religious loyalties deep rooted in some communities
  • Hitler had to proceed cautiously
126
Q

What was the main Protestant church in Germany ?

A

-German Evangelical Church

127
Q

What were the beliefs of the German Evangelical Church ?

A
  • Politically conservative and staunch nationalists
  • Strong tradition of respect for and cooperation with the state
  • Many Protestants were anti Semitic and anti communist
128
Q

How did Nazis get into a position to ‘nazify’ the Evangelical Church ?

A

-1933- Coordinate Evangelical church into a single, centralised Reich Church under Nazi control

129
Q

How was the Reich Church coordinated into the Volkgemeinschaft ?

A
  • Ludwig Muller appointed Reich bishop
  • Muller abolished all elected bodies within the church
  • Pastors who hadn’t declared their allegiance to the regime should be dismissed along with non-aryans
  • 18 pastors who had converted to christianity from Judaism were dismissed
130
Q

What was the Pastors Emergency League ?

A
  • Established by Protestant pastors unwilling to support developments in the church enforced by Nazis
  • Martain Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • This evolved into the Confessional Church
131
Q

What was the Confessional Church ?

A
  • Support of 5000 pastors
  • Established to resist state interference in the church
  • Re-establish a theology based purely on the bible
  • In opposition to the official Reich Church
  • Defiance of the Nazi policy= Gleichshaltung
132
Q

What was the New Ministry for Church affairs ?

A
  • 1935

- Reich Bishop Muller was marginalised

133
Q

How did the Nazis try to weaken the Confessional Church ?

A
  • Repression
  • Exploiting division’s within it
  • Marginalised Christianity by reducing the influence of Churches over young people by abolishing Church schools and pressure to join Hitler’s Youth
134
Q

What was the Church Secession Campaign ?

A
  • Launched Church Secession Campaign

- To persuade party to renounce their church membership

135
Q

What were the successes of the Church Secession Campaign ?

A
  • By 1939, 5% of the population listed as ‘god’s believers’ or people who retained some faith but had renounced formal membership of the Christian Churches
  • Party members not allowed to hold office in the Protestant or Catholic Churches
  • Stormtroopers forbidden to wear uniforms at church services
  • Priests and pastors forbidden from being in the Nazi party
  • Pressure to renounce faith but on those who’s employment depended on the regime (teachers, civil servants)
136
Q

Why was it harder for the Nazis to cooperate the Catholic Church into Gleichchaltung ?

A
  • Catholics part of an international church, took their lead in religious matters from the pope
  • Less susceptible to Nazi ideology
  • Early 1930’s, Catholic voters were the least likely to vote for the Nazis
137
Q

What was the Catholic Church’s approach to the new Nazi regime ?

A
  • Opted for cooperation and compromise to preserve its autonomy
  • When free trade unions were taken over by the German Labour Front 1933, Catholic trade unions voluntarily disbanded
138
Q

What were the terms of the Concordat 1933 ?

A
  • Vatican recognised the Nazi regime, promised the Catholic Church wouldn’t interfere in politics
  • Regime promised it wouldn’t interfere in the Catholic Church
  • Church would keep control of its schools, Youth organisations and lay groups
139
Q

How did the Nazi’s begin to break terms of the Concordat 1933 ?

A
  • Seized the property of Catholic organisations and forced them to close
  • Catholic newspapers ordered to drop the word ‘catholic’ from their names
  • Leading Catholics executed by SS in Night of the Long Knives (Fritz Gerlich, critic of the regime)
140
Q

How did the Nazis increase pressure on the Catholic Church between 1935-36 ?

A
  • Permission to hold public meetings severely restricted
  • Catholic newspapers and magazines heavily censored and had nazi editors
  • Gobbles launched a propaganda campaign against financial corruption in Catholic lay organisations. Many had funds seized and their offices closed by the SA
  • Membership of Hitler’s Youth compulsory
141
Q

What was the regime’s response to ‘With Burning Grief’ 1937 ?

A
  • Gestapo and SS agents placed inside Catholic Organisations
  • Catholic Youth organisations closed down
  • Gobbles propaganda ministry publicised many sex scandals involving Catholic priests- attempt to show church as corrupt. 200 priests arrested and tried on sex charges
  • By 1939, all church schools converted to community schools

Germany Flashcards (6 decks)

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